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Posts tagged: Marketing

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) are the backbone of the European economy. According to Eurostat, there are over 20 million firms (excluding financial firms) that constitute being an SME by having 250 or fewer employees, while the majority are micro enterprises with fewer than 9 employees. The sheer number of them alone presents a great opportunity to provide these businesses with tools and services to help them embrace the rapid changes in the communication world.

InfoTrends has recently completed its European research on marketing automation among Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The research, entitled Capturing the European SME Marketing Automation Opportunity, focused on the marketing and media needs of SME’s in five key European countries, and across 12 vertical markets. Some key highlights include: Read more »

Quick response (QR) codes have come a long way from their invention in 1994 by Denso Wave company.Â The QR code originated as a tool for tracking automotive manufacturing parts in Japan, and has risen to prominence in marketing and advertising campaigns in 2011. The ability for QR codes to be read on mobile devices has helped with increasing its popularity in today’s tech-savvy society. Consumers, marketers, and print service providers are beginning to become more aware of this technology by adopting it into their existing operations. As consumers, we often times see QR codes in many areas of our daily lives.Â The codes can be seen on our monthly statements encouraging customers to take action, in printed magazines to deliver further information, and on retail packaging for brands that want to engage with customers.

ï»¿ï»¿ï»¿On April 23, Adobe Systems announced the latest release of its Creative Suite toolset version 6.0, and formally announced the launch of its new Creative Cloud service. Â Adobe livestreamed a video kick-off where its president and CEO, Shantanu Narayen, spoke an “explosion of digital expression” in society, where the urge to create has never been greater than it is now. To highlight this point, Adobe leveraged statistics from a recent global research study it commissioned called “State of Create,” which investigated attitudes and beliefs about creativity in society. It used the study’s finding of a “creativity gap” to drive home the value of its Creative Cloud offering, which includes low-cost subscriptions to Adobe’s array of professional design applications. Read more »

The end of the first quarter is always an exciting time for the photo publishing/merchandise industry. By this time, the heavy volumes generated from direct holiday sales have slowed to a trickle and gift cards have been redeemed. The party is over, the cleanup is done, and the headaches from Q4 have dissipated. As we approach the end of Q1, it is a time for reflection. Vendors and retailers should reassess their current relationships, profit margins, marketing and production strategies, and start planning for Q4 2012.

I attended the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) Media & Technology Conference yesterday in New York City along with over 200 CEOs, CMOs and other executives from leading publishers, marketing service providers and technology vendors. For those who don’t know JEGI they are the leading independent investment bank focusing on media, information and marketing services sector.Â The program was outstanding covering critical issues including:

Getting Closer to the Consumer with Smarter Data

The Continuing Rise of Big Data

The Talent Imperative

The Media Equation: Paid + Owned + Earned

There were also presentations about the active M&A scene in the industry by JEGI, G.E. Capital and others. The main messages were deals are up and valuations are rising since lows back in 2009. The only grey cloud is the European sovereign debt situation which is mostly hampering large deals.

Henry Stewart held its second annual Customer and Marketing Analytics conference in downtown Boston last week from November 10-11. The theme of this year’s conference was “The Strategies, Plans, and Execution Techniques for Aligning Performance with Corporate Goals”. Throughout day one of the event, marketing experts and technology representatives spoke of their experiences, mistakes, and solutions that have brought them success. Five key messages Read more »

TheÂ difficult economy is putting more pressure on marketers, challenging themÂ to prove that the dollars they spend are delivering the best results possible.Â In this digital age where the volume of accessible data is increasing daily, marketers and advertisers are quickly becoming interested in the role data can play in developing marketing strategies and advertising campaigns that drive brandÂ awareness and ultimately sales.

Even with abundant consumer and business data available today, the challenge that marketers face is to find high quality data and organize it in a way that logically drives and determines marketing actions. The old marketing paradigm was rooted in maximizing marketing spend by communicating with the largest audience at the lowest cost. Cheap e-mail blasts are the modern equivalent of this outdated strategy. The new marketing paradigm is one that leverages data to create highly targeted cross-media campaigns directed at a segmented audience with a specific message. Effectively segmenting these audiences and building marketing models that yield the strongest return on investment, however, is easier said than done. Read more »

In the wide world of marketing solutions, marketing automation has significantly increased in popularity among marketing organizations over the past few years. While these solutions have largely been relegated to larger enterprise companies looking to streamline their marketing operations, more recently they have gained serious traction in SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses).

The continual move toward digital marketing to engage with online audiences is driving SMBs to seek solutions that provide the capability to more efficiently and effectively manage their marketing processes through these channels, allÂ while maintaining consistency amongst the much needed print channels as well. Read more »

The long-discussed move from offering only print to providing a host of media options backed by a solid marketing strategy is firmly taking hold in the market. This assertion is reflected in InfoTrends’ newly released study entitled The Evolution of the Cross-Media Marketing Services Provider. This research involved a survey of 285 print service providers (PSPs) and 63 in-plant organizations, and one-on-one interviews with close to 30 firms that have successfully made the cross-media transition. The goal of the study was to understand the current state of the transition, the benefits gained and challenges faced in making the move, best practices of early adopters, and organizational modifications required to succeed in offering cross-media marketing services.

The study revealed that successfully moving into cross-media marketing demands many levels of organizational change. Organizations must establish new marketing approaches, sales models, pricing strategies, and compensation practices for these new value-added capabilities. They need to determine the equipment and software investments that are required for delivering these services. They must also gain a solid understanding of the next phase in the cross-media and marketing services evolution. How will tomorrow’s market embrace print, online, social, mobile, and whatever media comes next?

One of the overarching trends of our research was that PSPs understand the value of offering cross-media marketing services, and they are moving in that direction. Meanwhile, the in-plant market is struggling. Close to 60% of PSPs reported offering cross-media services, compared to 38% of in-plant respondents. Furthermore, over 40% of in-plants had no plans to offer cross-media marketing services.